Pieces of Our Life

Random School Happenings

Each week, I teach my students an American slang word or phrase. The text book language is dull and boring, and they like to learn how I speak. I have taught them "How's it going?" "What's up?" "My bad!" "Sweet!" and "Icky." In order to teach them "icky," I showed a picture of a cow-pie, and I had some students close their eyes and smell and touch nasty canned dog-food. Afterwards, I asked the students to give me some examples of things that are icky. They didn't know the words in English, so they said them in Korean and acted them out. My co-teacher helped me to decipher what they were saying. After I figured out what they were trying to say, I taught them the appropriate words in English. They learned boogers, farts, dung, runny nose, throw up, mold, etc this week. They loved it.

My students are so kind! On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have a discussion class with five high school students. This week, they bought me ice cream and brought it to class!

While I was Skyping my parents during my free time, some of my students came to say hi to me. I let them chat with my parents for a little while. They loved it. They all said, "Oh, your mom is so beautiful." "Oh, they have good voices!" They were so excited that they were actually talking to my parents who are in America!

Our three year anniversary date - We went out to a fancy dinner downtown. The restaurant had live music and delicious food. We didn't eat rice, soup, or Kimchi (Korean staples). We wanted to go to a famous park in Daegu and rent bikes, but it rained for like four days straight :( Seth gave me Coach purse!!!

Sexy Seth

Three years of marital bliss :)

The view from my office. We have noticed that the skies are much "clearer" after a rain. You can see the mountains for a much greater distance, and there is no haze hovering over everything. We believe that the rain washes away the Yellow Sand (sand, dust, pollution) that constantly covers the Korean skies. After a rain, you can see suspicious patches of yellow sand clinging to sidewalks and roads. The masses of silver in the valley are green houses for growing melons. Seongju (the county we teach in) is famous for small yellow melons.

Preparing games for "sports day" at our church.

The church ladies playing a Yut Nori, a tradition Korean game.

Seth hanging out with our good friend, Maurice, from Kenya. He is studying theology in Korea and is a leader in our church. We also host English speaking Bible studies with him. Someday, we are going to visit him in Kenya! He taught us the acronym *OINK* (Only In Korea).

Hanging out Korean-style (on the floor) with some of the Korean ladies from our church during church "sports day." Traditionally, Koreans eat, sleep, and lounge on the floor. Seth gets made fun off because he can't sit on the floor well. His legs are too long :)

Bowling on the empty fourth floor of the church. We used empty Coke Bottles and a volleyball :) Before the games began, we had a "picnic" in this location.

This is an elementary school adjacent to our apartment. Korea has many varieties of beautiful flowers that bloom throughout the spring.

This picture is for you, Andrew! MLB is crazy popular in Korea. Many of the Korean baseball teams are named after American teams (Twins :) Giants, Bears, Lions, etc.) We hope to go to a game soon.

Oops! We attempted to make pancakes. Since we couldn't read the Korean directions, we eye-balled it. Where we assumed it said the serving size, it said 3-4. Seth thought that meant 3-4 pancakes not 3-4 servings :) We will be enjoying pancakes for awhile.

I just want to give a shout out to Bennigan's. Thank you for ranch dressing and margaritas :)

-Anna-Teacher

An Official Welcome

We had been complaining about the fact that we hadn’t been invited to any Koreans’ homes. It seemed really odd to us. When we were living in the United States, we had dinner parties on a regular basis. Dinner parties seem like a very common thing for Americans, especially when they are welcoming new friends from different countries. It is a simple way of showing that one cares. We have built some really good relationships with our co-teachers, people at our church, and other Korean friends, and it was surprising that none of them had offered to have us over for dinner. After complaining to my parents one evening, my dad brought up the fact that most Koreans probably assume Westerners have big, fancy houses and so they feel self-conscious about their homes, therefore, they have not invited us over.

Finally, after waiting for three months, Seth’s jolly 52 year-old co-teacher invited us to his home for his birthday. Last night, we dined and reclined with his family on the floor. He lives with his mother and son. His wife died about six months ago from cancer. His mother made us a delicious Korean meal consisting of the following: noodles and crab meat, dried and then fried peppers, extra sticky rice, ribs in red pepper sauce, grilled fish (with all of the skin and bones of course), spicy squid tentacles in red pepper sauce, a small fish delicacy in red pepper sauce, ginger leaves, dried and then fried seaweed, seaweed soup, Kimchi, Jeju Island oranges, Korean pears, apples, wine, and Paris Baguette cake. As you can imagine, we were stuffed.

The apartment was very close to how I imagined a Korean home would look. It was on the 11th floor of a huge concrete apartment complex (surrounded by many other of the exact same apartment complexes of course). The floors were a fake wood tile that is prevalent in Korea. There were many pictures of the family and some very simple but striking paintings of Buddha. There were no couches, or recliners, or beds. The family sits, eats, and sleeps on the floor like many Korean families. In the porch way, many unique plants grew and laundry was hanging to dry. The kitchen was small and had only a two burner stove with a small toaster oven below it. His mother did much of the dinner preparations on the floor. We really appreciated being invited to someone’s home. We left feeling very satisfied and like we had finally had an official welcome to Korea!

A Tour of Gyeongju

We spent last weekend in Korea’s previous capitol city: Gyeonju. Thursday and Friday we had teacher training with our Korean co-teachers. I learned that when Koreans boss you around, they are not trying to be rude; they just speak English in a very direct manner. When we first arrived in Korea, I always wondered why Koreans were so bossy. They often use phrases like, “You’d better . . .” and “You will . . .” when giving suggestions. It was a relief to learn that they aren’t trying to be mean!

During the training, we slept in a Korean-style room, which meant that there was no bed or couch. We stacked mats on the floor for cushioning. Because the hotel only provided us with floor padding and pillows stuffed with something that felt a lot like rice, we went down to the front desk to ask for a blanket. We knew they had blankets in the hotel because half of the rooms are Western-style rooms. After getting a Korean to translate for us, we went up to our room to wait. When we finally heard a knock on our door, we were presented with more floor mats, no blankets. We gave up and decided that it was worth the hassle of going down again to try to find someone who could understand that we wanted blankets not floor mats. The training was okay, but it seemed quite repetitive. I have to admit that the best part about it was the good food and free time to wander around Gyeongju.

After our training was completed, we spent the rest of the weekend touring the town mostly with our friend Cathy from Virginia. We saw a Buddhist temple, numerous tombs of famous kings, beautiful ponds and parks, and went to dinner with our other EPIK teacher friends. The city of Gyeongju places restrictions on building in order to keep the city a nice tourist destination. We didn’t see any high-rise apartment complexes!

Seth’s co-teacher, Mr. Choi, graciously took us to many of the most famous tourist sights in Gyeongju. He was hilarious. He is generally a very quite mannered guy, but while sight-seeing, he was very bossy and direct. He took charge as we ran after him and followed his every command. He would say things like, “Seth and Anna, read this.” “Give me your camera.” “Go look at the tombs.” Then he would very promptly tell us, “We are done. Now we will go.” He drove us everywhere and even paid for our admission into all of the sights.

On Saturday, we spent a few hours at the Bulgoksa Temple. The temple is not only a tourist destination, but it is also used for Buddhist worship. There are multiple different buildings for worship. Each room is elaborately painted with many bright colors and different Buddhist symbols. Outside the entrance is a wooden box for giving donations. We saw many people putting casually tossing coins in the box. Before entering, worshippers took off their shoes and proceeded to a mat on the wooden floor. This mat is placed in front of an alter that has a golden idol of Buddha with Buddhist paintings behind it, candles lit around it, and written prayers hung from brightly colored lanterns. The worshippers bowed down to the statue. There was also typically a Buddhist monk in the building dressed in simple flowing clothes. I found Bulgoksa Temple to be the most interesting sight we saw because it taught me so much about Korean history and culture.

Seoul

Getting off the train at Seoul Station. The KTX hits speeds of just over 300 kph ( 180ish mph). The trip takes about 1:40. The funny thing is, we actually ended up taking a taxi because a Korean guy made us.

This is the top of Nam San Tower. I don't really know the names of much of the stuff in the view. We will post longer videos on Facebook, probably on Anna's profile.

Sorry my videos are so lame, I'm not that great at commenting on these. This palace is north of the Nam San tower, and about 4 blocks from our hotel. The video taken below was right down the street.

This procession was just outside the Palace above the underground museum dedicated to king Sejong the Great who invented Hangul. The statue is of him.

Anna is way better at taking these videos :)

This is the beginning of the Andrea Bocelli concert.

The Perfect Work Day

Every Korean school takes a school trip. At my middle school, the grade levels take different trips with their class. This week the first graders went to a camp, the second graders went on a three day hike up Soraksan (Sorak Mountain), and the third graders went on a hike up a mountain to a small, but very famous Buddhist temple. I got to go with the third graders to the Buddhist temple.

We hiked for about an hour and twenty minutes before reaching the temple. The weather was perfect for hiking, 60 degrees and sunny. I hiked with 120 thirteen-year-old girls and three male teachers. Two other female teachers went, but they did not want to do the hike, so they met us at the top of the mountain. For me, it was the perfect way to spend a work day. You can imagine what the 120 thirteen-year-olds thought of it. They despised it. As I hiked along side them, they continually said, “I’m dying!” “I can’t do it.” “I’m so tired.” “I’m so hot.” Many of them fell and others took a few spare moments to sit down. I attempted to encourage the students at the end of our snake-like line, continually shouting “bali, bali” (hurry, hurry) and “You can do it!” Most of the walk was gorgeous; however there were a few times when I was a little taken back.

As we walked through a very rural area that preceded the mountain, we heard tons of dogs barking. At first, I thought maybe they were watch dogs, guarding property. As we got closer, I realized that all of these dogs were in wire cages. The cages were also concealed with tarps so that no one could look in. However, if you searched hard enough, you could find small openings. As we got even closer, I saw students pinching their noses shut, and I quickly put my jacket over my nose. The area smelled revolting. When I was able to get a look into the cages at the barking dogs, I realized that they were in similar cages to that of a pet rabbit’s cage. Wire raised above the ground so that when the dogs went bathroom, their deposits dropped to the ground to prevent them from walking all over it. I saw mounds and mounds of mushy dog crap, and I got a peek at some very scraggly dogs smooshed together in very confined spaces. I finally accepted the thought that kept popping up in the back of my mind. “The dogs are being farmed.” I eventually got the courage to ask one of the students, and she said, “Maybe they are to eat.” I knew it, but having it confirmed made me so sad that I haven’t been able to shake the thought.

Once we reached the summit, I gave each student a high-five as she took the final step to the temple. At the temple, we drank water from a natural water spring that is the basis for a legend.

A long time ago, a young prince was blind. Desperate to correct his vision, his mother took him to every physician she could find. No one was able to cure him. One day she took him up the mountain and found this spring. Here, she washed his face with the fresh water. The water healed his eyes. It was kind of interesting to know that I was drinking water form this famous stream.

After resting and taking pictures, the students took out their lunches and began to eat. Some of us teachers sat down with them. As I have said before, Koreans are very generous. The students fed me their lunches, some of them prepared by their mothers and some of them prepared by themselves. They used their chopsticks and spoons to feed me as a mother would feed her child. It was a fun and new experience, but in the back of my head, I couldn’t help thinking, “I wonder how many thousands of germs are being spread between us right now?” - 120 students and teachers sharing lunch - After getting my fill of the students’ food. The teachers had a picnic together that was provided by the students’ parents.

The Buddhist temple had elaborate carvings, vibrant colors, many miniature Buddha statues. Unfortunately, I had problems with my camera, so I will not be able to post pictures. As we hiked down the mountain, we walked through a traditional Korean village where a TV drama was being filmed. The students were so excited.

All in all, it was a great work day. I was so happy to get to know my students on a different level, and to see them out of their school uniforms!

Anna-Teacher

Seongju Girls' Middle School and High School

hiking up a mountain